Typically, a medical bandage or dressing is a covering or wrap that protectively conceals a wounded area of the body in order to stem the flow of body fluids from the wound, absorb body fluids from the wound, ease pain, debride the wound, protect the wound from infection, promote healing of the wound, and/or reduce psychological stress. Medical bandages are used for many different healthcare situations such as for emergency, post-surgical, or chronic care of a wound. Normally, bandages or dressings are in direct contact with the wound, and are covered with an adhesive film to hold them in place. Dressings can be marketed in various configurations; in a first example, dressings are sold alone in rolls, sheets or pads, to be directly applied on or around a body portion; in another example, a dressing and a corresponding adhesive band are sold as an integral product. Generally, dressings are sold in a flat configuration, to cover a substantially flat surface of the body. In the event that a curved surface is to be covered, the dressing is deformed to adopt the shape of the surface. Similarly, in the event that a full perimetric surface must be covered, such as a wrist or knee, the dressing is deformed to wrap around the perimetric surface.
It is well known that traumatic amputations are generally gruesome, devastating injuries that may result in death. Similarly, head injuries often result in trauma to the scalp, skull, or brain. These injuries frequently result in extreme blood loss which can contribute greatly to the associated fatality rate. The time required to control the bleeding of an amputation is vital in reducing blood loss. Often, quickly covering the wounds on the amputated limb or head helps to stop further blood loss during emergency care, and maintaining a suitable bandage can help protect the wound, promote wound healing and prevent infection. However, the dressing and bandage materials known in the art are often cumbersome to handle and difficult to appropriately deform and apply, particularly on an immobilized victim. Due to different settings, injuries, and access to care, medical professionals must use a multitude of sizes, shapes, styles of bandages for covering and treating wounds of the head or limb. In consequence, it is not rare that medical professionals are required to heavily manipulate dressings in order to fit them onto the head or onto a stump, leading to a great loss of time and to an increased risk of the dressings being contaminated or placed ineffectively from such manipulation. A person skilled in the art will clearly understand that the more ready, intuitive, and universally applied the medical devices and instruments are, the more effective and successful the treatment can be for immediate medical and post-traumatic wound care. In addition, promoting wound healing of the head or a limb can be a lengthy process requiring days to months of dressing changes and wound care. Having to repeatedly and manually wind and unwind conventional dressings (not particularly indicated for the head or limb) over the head or limb is cumbersome and extremely labor consuming.
In an attempt to reduce the amount of time needed to obtain a covering that is specifically shaped for the patient's head, some head-specific bandage solutions have been developed. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,609 describes a postoperative compression bandage for the head which is formed of two identical flat portions affixed to one another forming a flat body, wherein the body can be wrapped around the patient's head and be secured in place by hook-and-loop fasteners comprised on certain edges of the flat portions. U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0299259A1 describes a head trauma cap bandage and method which, when applied, applies compression pressure to stop bleeding; the head trauma bandage is cap-shaped and secured to the patient's head by a strap that wraps around the patient's mandible. U.S. Pat. No. 7,887,501 teaches a compressive head dressing comprising an elastomeric layer and a cinch for adjusting to the patient's head.
However, known solutions mainly focus on providing a head-shaped dressing and do not specifically address other problems such as being able to rapidly and efficiently provide treatment of head wounds.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art to provide an adequate dressing cover for the head, a limb or a stump or an extremity of the human or animal body, which is optimized for such body part, facilitates treatment of wounds and is yet provided at reasonable cost.